We are returning to the Revolution with the big Lexington & Concord 250th commemoration coming up next week! I find that I must revisit a question posed in a post several years ago: why didn’t Timothy Pickering and the Salem militiamen join the fight at Lexington or Concord or during the British retreat back to Boston? Pickering addressed this question many times during his life, and his failure to join the fray does not seem to have slowed him down: he went on to a distinguished career in service during the Revolution and after in a succession of appointed and elected Federal offices. His essential explanation? He thought it would all be over by the time he and his men marched to the front(s). I don’t think this is good enough, sorry, Colonel Pickering!
National Portrait Gallery
Here’s as objective a summary of the events of the day as I could muster: Pickering, who was most definitely the chief beneficiary of town offices previously held be exiled Salem Loyalists, was in his office at the Registry of Deeds when Captain Samuel Epes from Danvers came in with the news of the conflict at Lexington and Concord on the morning of the 19th. Pickering was the Colonel of the Essex County Militia: he ordered Epes to gather his men and march, and Epes did so, mustering EIGHT Danvers companies. The Danvers men played a key role in harassing the British retreat at Menotomy and suffered significant casualties (7 men; more than any other town with the exception of Lexington) in the process, including Salem’s lone participant in the events of the day, Benjamin Peirce. Just to the north of Salem, militia men from four Beverly companies were on the road to Lexington fairly quickly that morning, also engaging the British at Menotomy (now Arlington). Pickering did not summon his soldiers immediately; rather he called for a meeting of Salem’s leading gentlemen in Webb’s tavern—and this would not be his only tavern stop of the day—to deliberate. His accounts of these deliberations are consistent: he did not think the Salem men could get to the action in time so was predisposed to remain on the North Shore. His was a minority view, however, as most of the Salem gentlemen believed that the Town had to demonstrate its willingness to fight. The Derby brothers, Elias and Richard, were particularly vehement on this point. So Pickering reluctantly marched, but not for long! Just past the Bell Tavern in Danvers, he halted for refreshments and recommended that the militia remain there until news of a British withdrawal came. His men were anxious, and so he relented, and they marched to Lynn, where they stopped at Newhall’s Tavern for more “refreshment.” Back on the road, there was a more determined march from Lynn to Medford, where they learned that the British were still in the process of retreating, and close by. On Winter Hill, Pickering actually saw “the (reinforced) British force marching from Cambridge to Charlestown…..and the smoke of musketry” and prepared to engage, but received orders from from Brigadier General William Heath not to, an important detail which Heath later disputed. And so the Salem men guarded a Medford bridge on April 19, and that was that.
Pickering’s tavern stops on April 19, 1775: Fireboard view of Court House Square by George Washington Felt at the Peabody Essex Museum; the Bell Tavern on the far left in “Eagle Corner and Washington Street” by Charles Dole, 1828 and a print from the collection of the Peabody Historical Society; the Newhall Tavern in a photograph and sketch from the collection of the Lynn Museum & Arts Center—thanks to Christopher Locke for sourcing these for me!
There was quite a bit of comment about Pickering’s “tardiness” and “timidity” from his contemporaries, and historians followed suit. The best indication of the former is the “Memorial” that the Town of Salem sent to the General Court of Massachusetts in August, which is included in the biography of Pickering by his youngest son, Octavius. This is such an incredible document that I’m going to include quite a bit of it, as Octavius Pickering did. He thought it was “vindication” for his father; I do not.
- “The town of Salem humbly showeth, that, many calumnies and misrepresentations having been made and industriously propagated concerning the conduct of the town upon and since the 19th of April last, in consequence of which its character has been greatly injured and some of its inhabitants insulted and abused, the town thinks it a point of duty to take effectual steps to vindicate its innocence, and procure a redress of those grievances, which are too many and too heavy any longer silently to be endured, and therefore beg leave to give the following detail of facts : —
- “On the 19th of April, very soon after authentic intelligence arrived of the barbarous deeds of the King’s troops at Lexington, the inhabitants mustered in arms, and near three hundred marched off, and directed their course according to the intelligence they were continually receiving on the road of the situation of the troops ; but, though they marched with as much despatch as was possible, consistent with their being fit for action after so long a march as they must necessarily make, yet they arrived in sight of the troops not till the last of them were marching up Bunker’s Hill. Why the inhabitants of Salem should be so highly censured for their conduct on this occasion, the town cannot conceive. Thousands of men, nearer, much nearer, the scene of action, either stayed at home or arrived no sooner than the Salem militia. From Milton and its environs, in particular, the militia got as far as Cambridge only, at the same time that the Salem militia arrived at Charlestown; yet, by a strange and unaccountable partiality, the inhabitants of Salem only are reproached; and the multitudes near at hand, who never stirred an inch, or, though they lived but at half the distance, arrived as late as the Salem militia, are entirely excused. In short, it is most absurdly declared by many, that, if the Salem militia had not been negligent and pusillanimous, the King’s troops must have been entirely cut off; that is, fewer than three hundred men could have done infinitely more in one or two hours, than the whole body of militia assembled had been able to perform that day.” [The Memorial then addresses another charge upon Salem: that British ships were being provisioned by the town!!! Must look into this!]
- “This, may it please the Honorable Court is a brief, thorough faithful, narrative of facts; hence it may be judged how injuriously the town of Salem has been treated. The town cannot forbear to express its astonishment. What could occasion the reproach so liberally thrown upon us? What motives could be imagined sufficient to tempt us to neglect the duty we owe to ourselves, our posterity, and our country ? What proofs have we given of our insensibility, that we should neither dread the curses of slavery, nor feel the blessings of liberty? What could we have done more than we have done, to secure the latter to ourselves and all our dearest connections ? When the balance of public affairs was most doubtful, — when neither money nor the means of payment were provided, and the sentiments of the Continent were unknown, — then Salem furnished every needful supply in its power, as soon as the army’s wants were known ; how readily, and to how great amount, the Committee of Supplies and the Treasurer can inform. We have continued these supplies, and the town is drained. What more remains for us to do?”
The Seat of War in New England, by an American Volunteer, 1775; Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon via ARGO: American Revolutionary Geographies Online [this is a great site–check it out!]
Appendix #1 Without a military presence at Lexington and Concord, I think the most important contribution of Salem to this epic event was likely printer-publisher Ezekiel Russell’s broadside Bloody Butchery by the British Troops, or, The Runaway Fight of the Regulars. Being the Particulars of the Victorious Battle fought at and near Concord … between Two Thousand Regular Troops, belonging to His Britannick Majesty, and a few Hundred Provincial Troops, a major propaganda coup. The Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum will be presenting an exhibition on Russell for the Salem’s quadricentennial next year, which is great news!
Appendix #2 I am giving my first Revolutionary talk next week for Historic New England’s Phillips House: excited and a little nervous! Pickering will be referenced, but not in relation to Lexington and Concord: he is very representative of an increasing Whig resistance to the royal government that created a deep division in Salem in the decade before the Revolution, what I am calling a “pre-revolutionary revolution.” On the 29th, my colleague Tad Baker will be giving a talk on some of the Salem Witch Trial references which surfaced in Revolutionary rhetoric—a very interesting topic! You can find more information and register here: https://www.historicnewengland.org/visit/events/.
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